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GREENVILLE -- There's a reason why Sidney Lowe didn't want to play this game, why he kept saying "this game was scheduled before I got here."

East Carolina played like this was its national championship, while N.C. State played like this was its Waterloo as the Pirates pulled off a 75-69 upset.

ECU (4-5) had never beaten State (4-3) in 17 previous tries. The Pirates came into Saturday with a perfectly imperfect 0-57 record against the ACC.

Those 17 games against State had been played in Raleigh. This one was on the Pirates' turf, in front of a raucous crowd in Minges Coliseum.

"I've coached a long time in a lot of great places," said ECU coach Mack McCarthy. "I don't know that I've ever been in a building as loud as that was. There were some times when it was deafening in there."

The energy of the home crowd seemed to lift the ECU players to another level. The one who seemed to feed off it most was Sam Hinnant. The junior guard from Charlotte scored a game-high 30 points and made six 3-pointers in eight attempts. He was open on a few, but several of Hinnant's shots came with a great degree of difficulty.

"He made unbelievable shots," Lowe said.

One of those came at the end of the first half. With the Wolfpack leading, 38-35, Hinnant came around a screen about 27 feet from the basket, with State's Gavin Grant in front of him.

"After I hit the first one, I knew I was going to have a good night tonight," he said.

It seemed as if State had restored the natural order when it opened up the second half on a 9-0 run to take a 47-38 lead.

"I'm thinking 'This is the time when an experienced team, they turn it up,' " Lowe said. "We turned it over a couple of times."

Given an opening, ECU took full advantage.

The Pirates scored on seven straight possessions, culminating with a 4-point play by guard James Legan for a 54-53 lead with 11:30 remaining. It was the Pirates' first lead since 2-0.

The crowd was starting to believe an upset might be possible. So, too, were the ECU players. It also seemed that State sensed what might be happening and began to tense up. How else to explain how the Wolfpack, after making 21 of its first 23 free throws, missed five of its last six, including an air ball by Brandon Costner? How else to explain why, after Hinnant hit a 3-pointer to put the Pirates up 67-64, State hurried an inbounds pass that was stolen by Cory Farmer? Farmer drove to the basket for a lay-in, completing a five-point surge that proved to be the game's critical moment.

A comeback might still have been possible for State. But the Wolfpack missed open outside shots, making five of 16 from 3-point range. And State gave up critical offensive rebounds.

ECU grabbed seven offensive rebounds in the final nine minutes and ended up outrebounding the Wolfpack, 34-33. This just after ECU was pounded on the boards, 50-26 against Clemson on Wednesday.

"We knew they were taller," said Pirates guard Darrell Jenkins. "But the heart showed."

After getting blown out at Michigan State and then suffering a historic loss to ECU, State must now do a bit of searching for its own collective heart.

"We need to learn how to win together," Grant said. "We're not finishing games."

Contact Jim Young at 373-7016 or jyoung@news-record.com

N.C. STATE (4-3)

Fg Ft Reb

Min M-A M-A O-T A PF PTS

Grant 37 7-11 10-13 0-6 0 4 25

Costner 32 2-11 3-5 2-10 3 2 7

Hickson 35 4-6 7-9 3-8 2 2 15

Fells 29 3-8 0-0 1-2 1 4 8

Degand 34 1-7 2-2 1-3 4 3 5

Harris 0 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0

Gonzalez 6 1-2 0-0 0-0 0 1 3

Horner 14 1-2 0-0 0-0 1 1 2

McCauley 13 2-3 0-0 2-2 1 1 4

Totals 200 21-50 22-29 10-33 12 18 69

Percentages: FG .420, FT .759.

3-point goals: 5-16, .313 (Fells 2-5, Gonzalez 1-2, Grant 1-2, Degand 1-3, Costner 0-4).

Team rebounds: 2.

Blocked shots: 2 (Hickson 2).

Turnovers: 14 (Costner 6, Degand 3, Hickson 2, McCauley 2, Fells).

Steals: 1 (Grant).

EAST CAROLINA (4-5)

Fg Ft Reb

Min M-A M-A O-T A PF PTS

Gagnon 18 0-2 0-0 1-1 0 1 0

Blair 20 1-7 2-2 3-7 1 5 4

Farmer 14 2-5 2-3 1-5 0 4 6

Hinnant 34 10-13 4-6 1-3 1 1 30

Jenkins 26 3-8 4-5 0-2 8 3 11

Legan 24 3-7 1-1 0-1 0 0 9

Young 14 0-3 0-0 0-0 4 2 0

Abrams 6 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0

Fields 28 3-6 1-6 5-11 0 4 7

Wynn 8 2-3 0-0 1-1 0 1 4

Evans 8 1-1 1-2 0-1 2 1 4

Totals 200 25-55 15-25 12-34 16 22 75

Percentages: FG .455, FT .600.

3-point goals: 10-18, .556 (Hinnant 6-8, Legan 2-4, Evans 1-1, Jenkins 1-3, Farmer 0-1, Young 0-1).

Team rebounds: 2.

Blocked shots: 3 (Hinnant, Wynn, Fields).

Turnovers: 11 (Jenkins 3, Blair 2, Evans 2, Young, Abrams, Gagnon, Farmer).

Steals: 6 (Gagnon, Farmer, Legan, Blair, Evans, Jenkins).

N.C. State 38 31 -- 69

East Carolina 38 37 -- 75

A--7,623. Officials--Gary Maxwell, Kyle Neve, Terry Moore.